author's note: comments and suggestions are welcome.

chapter 12: The brave 3,000

Previously, one of the empire's greatest hero and symbol of humanity, a member of the sacred blade order of powerful knights and their magical weapons, were sent into a different place far from home, together with her trusted men. What will happen to her? Will she be able to go back? or will she get a serious forehead flicking from my master!? oh... sorry I forgot to introduce myself, silly me tehee~ my name is Ai, short for Artificial Intelligence, but I would really appreciate it if you would call me Ai~chan, anyway continuing on, my master is really pissed! which is bad! really bad! I'm not sure if they will be able to escape my capricious and bordering crazytown owner, and I'm not entirely aware how I enden up with her which is still a mystery unto itself but one thing is certain. they wont be able to leave this place unscathed, mark my words, they dont call me the epitomy of human technology for nothing.

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[ system notice ]

[ connection successful! ]

[ disengaging transdimentional cube ]

As the light begins to fade and the shaking of the ground comes to a stop, what greeted their eyes were a vast expanse of empty land surrounded by mountains and valleys instead of the dark labyrinth where they stood just a minute ago. looking up, the sky was a bit different, ahem... calling it a bit different would be an understatement, the clear blue sky was absent from their view and in its place were objects that closely resemble gears that you would normally see inside a clock, whats more, these gears were the ones that make up the entirety of the sky itself. The clouds were missing, what floated in the air in its place were gigantic rocks of varying shapes. on the ground, not a single tree or plant life. no animals or monsters, and no sign of civilization. It was a desolate area.

" Where is this place? " a knight standing close to Prim asked her a stupid question.

" How should I know!? " she yelled at him angrily, not wanting to cause herself embarrassment from not knowing.

Her men flinched at the sight of their superior and her outburt. But what can they do? It was the obvious question that everyone was asking themselves at that time.

" Reform our ranks! Priest's, Acolytes, Wizards and all non-combat personnel to the middle! Guardians form a perimeter defence around them, all my Knights unsheathe your weapons and prepare for anything.

All her men did as they were told, then Prim Valentine went towards her elite mages to exchange a few words.

" Kaldun! Zemora! and Furego! tell me what just happened. How did we ended up getting here? " Prim, hoping to get an answer, consulted the elders.

" Forgive us White Flame Valentine, but it will take some time before we can manage to give any solid explaination. " Furego answered her.

" What!? " Prim yelled at them, she was obviously furious, it was embarrassing for a member of the sacred blade order to be caught up in such a trap.

The elders almost wet their pants. Prim was a symbol of power and beauty, but she was also known for her Anger management issues. Causing the elders to shudder whenever she was in a bad mood.

Prim was walking back and forth, her 34d's bouncing up and down, trying to think of ways to find a solution to this problem. Until the sound of men and women screaming caught her attention.

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Pov: Aria

After the light receeded, my eyes wandered around and I saw Athen standing beside me, staring daggers at a certain direction towards a valley, her piercing gaze told me that she had her sights at our enemies location, but it was too far from us, and my eye sight doesn't have the ability to see far ahead so I could only ascertain this with her actions.

" I see you've found them. " I said to her.

" Yes, I did. " she didn't bother looking in my direction when she answered me.

Looking at her, I noticed that she was really mad, who wouldn't? Centor was a part of her kin and she was their matriarch, but she failed to protect him. There was only one way to appease her anger, she wanted blood, and death. Remembering the number of times that she lost to Centor in a game of Poker, Black Jack, Chess, Majong and many others, you would think that she would despise him because he cheated in every single one of them, but she didn't. The black cheating bastard grew on her, and now that he was currently out of commision, she wanted vengeance.

" I'm quite disappointed that we didn't bring Barm along with us, not like we had a choice, but it would definitely make things a lot easier if he was here. " Prentending to be troubled, I looked at Athen with furrowed eyebrows.

" Certainly you jest Mistress? I have already increased my Intelligence to a certain degree so I can tell if you are joking or not. Allow me to show these mongrels the true meaning of power, they can lament on their choices in life once I send them off to their graves. " Athen replied with a hint of a smile.

" True, but still, there is only two of us, and they seem to be well prepared. " I attempted to humor her once more.

" I'm sure mistress has a few tricks hidden under her sleeve, and this amount of difficulty is like playing with children. I have more faith in your strength as a summoner,- than your close to laughable and pathetic skills in interpersonal relationships with other people.

" Okay thats just mean... I plan on having a heart to heart talk with Elena after we are done. I now realized that my actions caused all of this, I'm going to release her and send her back to her father, its my fault Centor..... " looking at the ground and gritting my teeth.

" Its not your fault Mistress. " Athen attempted to comfort me.

After I collected myself, I stepped forward and began my preparations. I threw my terminal infront of me and stretched both my arms towards it, then my terminal quickly glowed and digitized before vanishing immediately with a "wooooshhzzt!" sound, from its direction two threads of bright white light shot out and covered both my left and right hand. Then the light began to crawl towards my arms until it completely covered my entire body except for my head.

The light surrounding my body started to fade, revealing what was underneath. A pair of white cybernetic gloves covered both my right and left hand, on its backside the number 00 could be seen on both.

My feet sported two white cybernetic boots that goes up to my knee, The rest of my body is covered by a thin soft white cloth that sticks to my skin completely.

(when I say thin, I mean really thin. I'm gonna let your imagination run wild.)

On my neck, a black choker was attached and on the front side of it were the numbers 00 written.

When it was completed, I relaxed both my arms and returned it to each side. Infront of me five holographic screens appeared out of nowhere, then I raised my right arm and the palm of my hand facing upwards, from underneath me, two rings of white light floated up on top of one another rotating around me in a radius of ten and twelve meters respectively.

I then snapped my finger and a sphere of dim white light enveloped me in a radius of twenty meters before my body started to float in mid air.

Stretching my right arm infront of me, then closing my right hand to form a fist I motioned one of the holographic screens to move closer as if I was pulling it. When it was within arms reach, I opened my right hand as it landed on the monitor causing the images on it to zoom in. That was when I saw it clearly.

" 3,000 strong, a culmination of knights, guardians, mages and healers. This is gonna be tough. " I said to myself.

" I'm sure I can manage to wipe them out. " Athen smiled when she heard their numbers.

" I know of your abilities Athen, and I have an idea on what you plan on using for this battle. Unfortunately that spell takes a long time to channel, and because large amounts of mana will be consumed it will reveal your position once you start chanting even from this distance.

" Thats where you come in Mistress. " she was grinning from ear to ear.

" Sigh.... I really wish Barm was here. " I took one final look at Athen before casting my limited summoning spells.

I flicked my hand and a number of holographic cards appeared infront of me, written on these cards are the words.

[ summoning materials ]

Seeing this, Athen started to chant her longest spell that takes about fifteen to twenty five minutes to finish casting depending on the situation. The ground under her feet started to glow extremely bright as she raised both her wings upward and a number of magical glyphs and symbols apeared on both. as she slowly raised her head towards the sky, magic circles begun forming towards the direction of her target, a total of five magic circles evenly spaced by about five meters in between each. Everything about the spell screamed Holy! except for the black miasma coming out of Athen's eyes.

I then moved forward and jumped off, from the top of a cliff until I landed on the floor of the valley which was our current position, after causing a deep crater and shockwave from my mana barrier where I fell, I started the production of cannon fodder.

Taking three cards, I begin my performace.

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Aria: " Crimson Red~ like the fire and blood that stirs the men and causes great pain and agony, towards the endless void I call upon you. Heed your master's call!

I then threw the first card in the holographic screen in the middle.

Aria: " Obsidian Black~ darkness that covers the heart and haunts you in your nightmares, the ever creeping shadow that follows you. I offer this sacrifice!

And there goes the second towards the same direction.

Aria: " Tempest Silver~ pure and peerless let your blade cut through fate and deliver you from your sins, use the dead bodies of these men and make your self a stairway towards the heavens. Rise my Champion!!!

As the third card falls within it, The screen instantly shatters with the sound of breaking glass. Then, dark miasma seeps out from the broken pieces and from the smoke came the disfigured monster that you would only see on horror films and your deepest darkest nightmares.

[ Headless Queen ]

undead

lvl90

hp: 350,090

mp: 20,575

str: 450

sta: 830

int: 120

agi: 600

dex: 420

luk: -999

skills:

beheading - instantly kills a target. ( cd: none ) ( attack can be blocked )

knit flesh - heals 1% of maximum hp per kill

The headless queen wore a black one piece flowing dress covering her entire body with matching high heel shoes to add more height. equipped with a black imposing scythe on her right hand and on her left she has her head embedded in it. The size of the blade was ten feet long and four feet in width coming from the edge of the blade upto the back.

The headless queen stood tall, towering upto eight feet. The neck had its bone exposed, and blood continuously flowed out from the wound ruining her dress. her left hand was ridiculously a lot bigger than her right, enabling her to completely cover her face which was neatly stitched and placed on the palm of her left hand.

After being summoned, the Headless Queen ran off towards her new friends accompanied by some skeleton warriors which Aria included in the mix.

On Aria's neck, the black choker attached on her, had the number (01) displayed and on the backside of both her hands, each cybernetic glove displayed (99 )

The Headless Queen ran across the valley and within three minutes, she reached the enemy's formation. Instantly causing the ones that saw her to feel fear, some of the knights even screamed like a woman before the Headless Queen claimed her first victim.

Headless Queen: " Off with their heads!!! " She screamed her favorite line before the rest of her entourage arrived and started fighting the rest of the enemies.

Skeleton Warrior: " Stop dont fight! We are your Friends. "

Skeleton Soldier: " Clack Clack Clack! "

Knight of Deneriv: " Jesus Christ!!! "

Priest: " Holy Father! Aaahhhh!!! "

chapter end....